Process of protective color-printing.



W. W. KENNEDY.

PROGESS OF PROTECTIVE COLOR PRINTING APPLIUATION FILED r1111. 3, 1911.

1:010,635. I ,Batented Dec.5, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

iii hebes 66, E e/z i077 W. W. KENNEDY.

PROGESS 0F PROTECTIVE COLOR PRINTING,

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1911.

Patented Dec. 5, 1911.

m W m m m\ w o p. w w 0 a m m L w ducing WATSON KENNEDY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

rnocnss or 'rno'rncrrvn COLOR-PRINTING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 3, 1911. Serial No. 606,317.

Patented Dec. 5, 1911.

To' all whom it-gna'y concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. KEN- NEDY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes of Protective Color-Printing, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to a new and improved process of color printing for protints by safety or protective anilin inks 1n printing bank notes, checks, and other instruments in which protection against erasure or alteration is desired, and the invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and then pointed out in the appended claims. In protective printing for these various instruments, the paper is provided with a tint produced by a plurality of -fine lines or other impressions printed by safety inks which expose any erasure or alteration, the tint being of any design or character, such for example as a vpantograph tint, parallel or crossed lines etc.-, and being usually impressed or printed on the paper before the reading matter etc., is printed. In this protective printing as practiced before my invention two methods were available for printing the tint or color 9n the-paper; (1) the lithographic process mvolving the employment of a stone mount aim the horizontally reciprocating bed of a printing press and printing upon the paper held upon the impression cylinder by suitable nippers or e uivalent means, (2) the ordinary process 0 printingfrom a zinc plate on which the pattern is produced by making a large drawing thereof, then reducing the latter by photolithographic redilction, stripping the redueedfilm from its plate, spreading the film on the zinc plate and, rolling-up the lines. which are protectedwith varnish ink from an acid bath,

the? zinc plate then being mounted on a block of wood on the horizontally reciprocating bed of'a press and printing directly upon the paper held on the impression cylinder by suitable nippers, and (3) the plate process involving the employment of an ordinary metallic printing plateiin a rotary press, in which process an impression is taken from a stone or engraved plate on thin paper b heavy ink not soluble in water and is trans erred to an ordinary plane-sur faced metallic printing-plate, the paper then being washed ofl' the plate and the impres:

sion .rolled-up with subsequent coatings.

soluble in water, such for example as those known in the trade as varnish inks,-becluse it is necessary to dampen the rolled-up The third-or plate method requires inks that are not plate to prevent the printing ink adhering to its surface instead of only to the rolledup impression and this damping would lower the afiinity of the water-soluble anilin or water-color printing inks for the printing lines of the impression and the printing ink would run into the minute depressions between the printing projections or lines of the rolled-up impression of heavy ink forming the printingsurface-or pattern and so smear or blur the tint impression. Furthermore, the rolled-up? printing plate method is incapable of printing with anilin or water-color protective inks under any conditions because the rolled-up impression of heavy ink forming the printing surface or pattern is so low that the anilin or water-soluble inks, being more fluid and viscous than other printing inks, would run into the depressions and upon the surface of the plate itself and so blur the impression; this tendency is aggravated by the character of the inking rollers which are leather covered which with either the smooth or grain or hair side out would wipe the viscid anilin inks into the depressions, and upon the plate. For these reasons protective tint printing in anilin inks was limited before my invention to lithographic stone and, zinc plate processes, and as the reciprocating presses upon which. the stones and plates can be used have a capacity of only about 5,000 impressions as compared with 30,000 to 40,000 impressions-by the rotary presses for each working day of- 8 or 9 hours each, the output of'anilin ink proteet=T closel the consideration that anilin inks are more desirable for such work than inks that are afiected only by acids, etc, because after printing the tint the latter in time lose their protectiye uality as the become practically insolu lo and una ected by variousv agents employed in altering checks, etc.,

which may then remove the ink with which the superscription is written or printed without affecting the tint and so permit the a process whereby anilin protective inks may be employed for printing protective colors or tints from metallic plates upon rotary resses.

Some of the steps of the process are carried out upon a su table rotary press havin certain modifications, and in the annexe drawing Figure-1 illustrates a practical form of press that may be employed for these steps; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a check or other suitable instrument printed with a protective tint in accordance with my invention; Fig. 3 is a top plan view'ofa form of printing plate that may be employed, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale on the line 44- of Fig. 3.

In the practice of my invention I print from the surface or material of the plate itself, and for this urpose Iprepareafiexible metallic plate K in which the printing points of contact, representing the salients or top of the design or pattern, are fine and arranged and .in high relief and raise above the body of the plate to a height much above that of ordinary rolledup plates; in the latter the points of contactare usually less than one one-thousandth (1/1000) of an inch high, whereas in the lates employed in my process'they are 'pre erably ei ht times as high and in some cases from ourteen to fifteen one-thousandths (14/1000 to 15/1000) of an inch high, the general proposition being true that the character of the work is improved as the latter dimension is approximated. The plate design, such for example as the crossed lines re resented by the reference letter a, with at er lines or points representing a border a of any suitable design when the latter is desired, is prepared on a flexible metallic printing plate. Where margins of the paper color are desired about the tint, as for-example in bank checks, the material is etched or cut away at suitable places as at a and when vignettes. cuts, etc. are desired, it is either cut away at the desired places for their insets or they may no prouced in the material of the plate as at as more fully-hereinafter stated.

A suitably prepared plate A is secured in place upon a revolving cylinder B of an elf-- set press, the flexibility of the plate allowing it to accommodate itself to any suitable cylinder, and the plate is inked by the composition inking-roll'ers G applying the protective anilin or water color ink thereto from a suitable supplyand driven in unison with the plate cylinder by suitable .driving connections (not shown) to the main or drive shaft of the press. Hard-rubber rollers Dare employed and revolved by any suitable drive connections (not shown) in unison with and in contact with the top of the work of the plate A to smooth and equalize the ink upon the printing lines or points a of contact of the plate. A reversed impression of the design is transferred from the plate upon a transfer blanket or set off E, usually a rubber blanket, mounted upon a suitably driven cylinder, and by the transfer blanket the impression of the design is made upon the sheets on the impression cylinder F which are fed through the machine in any suitable manner and as now well known in the art; it being understood that a set-01f press is preferably employed.

In Fig. 2 I have shown a check tinted in accordance with my invention and it will be observed that the body of the'check is covered by a tint pi'oduced by fine lines as a, that the border as a is also of fine lines or impression points, that the margin as a is clear in the color of the paper printed upon, and that the vignette as a may be varied to comprise anysuitable matter, the same referenceletters being employed as for the parts in the other figures producing these corresponding matters. The vignette or cut as at a may be produced in any suitable at tern or design in the metal of the ate itself, and the tint of the body of the eck may be any design as may the-border, and the tint may of course be similarly applied to the check-coupon. or stub.

By my invention finer work is possible for providing the lines of the tint, including the orders, vignettes, cuts etc. than by the old processes. A

In my invention the metal of the plate forms the printing surfaces and so they may produce much finer and sha or lines or salients than with the litho ap ic stones or socalled zinc plates. e stones the etching by the acid to produce the printing-surfaces is not under the operatorscontrol and the acid employed for that purpose will eat away the stone unevenly so that irregular lines are produced and the edges are undermined and'broken so that they break down under the heavy pressure of pulling the impression; this, acid action also prevents fine-work such as vignettes, cuts of buildings, lathe-borders, or close impressions because it destroys the stone material between adjacent cavities and so requires the intervening walls to. be of considerable thickness with the result that the impression surfaces are widely separated and are broken and undermined. Furthermore, the cost of the lithographic stones is so great, as only those of the highest quality free from veins and chalk spots can be used, that anilin ink protective printing is prohibited on ninety per cent. of orders requiring protective tints. Also, the high cost of preparing the stones,

the cost of 1nk consumed, and the limited number of impressions per dayupon the reciprocating bed press render this process uncommercial and impractical; furthermore, the pressure required'to ull a clean even impression on the paper rom contact with the printing surface of the stone is so great that soft papers are embossed and the stones wear quickly.

In the practice ofmy invention there is no pressure or embossing on the most delicate of papers and no wear on the plate,

while the cost is noless than one-tenth of the lithographic process and the number of impressions that can be taken in a day is increased five or six times. In the old zinc plate or second process above described only coarse work can be accomplished and it is not possible to print fine work for anilin tinting of checks etc., by thez'inc block; in fact this latter cannot produce any finer lines than the lithographic stones. For these reasons finer vignettes, building cuts, lathe borders, and tints all having finer and sharper lines and contours can be printed in iticular place.

'pression upon the sheets.

of the plate between adjacent printing sur- "faces to suchdepth that no impression will be produced, the same being done where any a speciahcut etc. is to be inset at any par- Having described my invention, I claim:

1. The process of protective tint printing with anilin ink which consists in producing a flexible metallic printing plate having fine and closely arranged metallic printing surfaces in high relief above its face, inking the surfaces with an anilin ink, spreading the e ink to equalize it on the printing surfaces by a hard-rubber roller, and taking the im- 2. The process of producing protective tints by printing with protective anilin ink which consists in producing aflexible metallic printing plate having fine and closely arranged metallic printing surfaces in high relief above its face, rotating the plate with its printing surfaces in contact with an anilin ink-applying composition rolleriand in contact with a hard-rubber ink-spreading roller, transferring the-impression from the printing surfaces to a transfer surface or blanket, and taking the impression from the latter upon the sheets.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM WATSON KENNEDY. 

